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December 5, 2007

Evil Xmas List #8: Eye-Fi...

We bought this gadget because, well, we're gadget whores.  And it did sound great.  Put this Wi-Fi enabled SD-RAM card in any camera and it will instantly upload all the pictures you take to the photo web site of your choice.

Of course, it's not that simple.

You have to be able to log into the site with your computer to pre-program the card, and so you have to know ahead of time where you're going to want to be to do the upload.  Sure, if you take pictures exclusively around the house, that's fine, you probably know your own wireless settings.  But if you're traveling in a strange town, forgetaboutit.  And even if you have a connection paid for in the hotel room where you're staying, the lack of the card's ability to log-in past whatever authentication they offer is just a deal breaker.

Frankly, if we've got our laptop, its just easier to yank the SD card and upload the pictures ourselves.

Then we started thinking.  What if we ignored that whole bit about accessing the web while you're traveling?

We do a lot of tech support for friends and family who aren't as tech savvy.  Some of them even have trouble with the whole getting the pictures off the camera thing.  And when it's working, this card is like magic - the photos just upload and you're actually surprised when you get to your Flickr page and your stuff is already there, waiting for you to approve them for public viewing.

So we do highly recommend this card, as a gift to anyone who you have to support in this otherwise mundane task.  After you set everything up for them, it's one of those things that will just work.  They'll think it's magic, that you're a hero, and all you have to do is lay out the bucks to get one into their camera. 

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